Machine for driving tacks and the like.



E'. HOLBROOK.

MACHINE POP. DRIVING TAGKS AND THB LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.24, 1911.

fnvenr.' Eu 71: 15702570033 F. HOLBROOK.

MACHINE PoR DRIVING TACKS AND THB LIKE.

APPLICATION FILED FEB.24, 1911.

1,022,481 Patented-Apr. 9, 1912.

2 SHEETS-SHEET z.

mmm llll V//ll/ Inventor:

F UwoZrook 1 rn s Aras rar 1 FFC.

FRANK HOLBROOK, 0F LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR 0F ONF-HALF T0 THOMAS C. BOWEN, 0F LYNN, MASSACHUSETTS.

MACHINE FOR. DRIVING TACKS AND THE LIKE.

Application led February 24, 1911.

Speceaton of Letters Patent.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, FRANK I-IoLBRooK, a citizen of the United States, residing at Lynn, in the county of Essex and State of Massachusetts, have invented new and useful Improvements in Machines for Driving Tacks and the Like, of which the following is a Specification.

This invention relates to improvements in machines for driving tacks and' the like and has for its object to provide a simple and eiiicient machine in which the tacks shall be fed from a mass in a hopper, delivered to a raceway, and received one by one in a holder, from which they shall be driven by a driving mechanism, and the object is more particularly to provide la machine in which the tacks shall be fed with rapidity and certainty and without danger of clogging the parts of the feeding mechanism.

To this end, the invention consists in the novel features of construction and in the combination and arrangement of parts set forth in the following specification and particularly pointed out in the claims.

Referring to the drawings: Figure 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of a tacking machine embodying my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional view, partly broken away, taken on line 2 2 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows on said line. Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view taken on line 3 3 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows on said line. Fig. 4 is a detail sectional View taken on line 4 4 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows on said line. Fig. 5 is a detail of the yoke which connects the driver slides and upon which the driver is mounted. Fig. 6 is a detail sectional View taken on line 6 6 of Fig. 4, looking in the direction of the arrows on said line.

Like numerals refer to like parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

In the drawings, 10 is a hopper which is preferably mounted to rotate about an inclined aXis and which is preferably internally tapered having a small end 11 and a relatively larger end 12, the relative diameters being so proportioned to the angle of inclination of the axis that tacks or other like articles contained within the hopper naturally gravitate toward the larger end along the inclined surface of the hopper. The hopper is journaled upon a suitable 17 to receive the Shanks of the tacks.

support consisting of a sleeve 13 mounted in a bracket 14e on the base 15 of the machine.

Through the sleeve 13 a raceway 16 extends, said raceway being preferably cylindrical in form and provided with a groove This raceway preferably receives its supply of tacks from a second raceway 18 consisting of a pair of plates 19 mounted upon a suitable support upon' the raceway 16, said support preferably comprising a split collar 20 secured to the raceway 16, a yoke 21 to which the plates 19 are secured, and a clamping screw 22 by means of which said yoke is pivotally supported upon and secured to the split collar 2O and by means of which said collar is clamped onto the raceway 16.

The hopper 10 is provided with a suitable opening 23 through which the supply of tacks is placed therein and through which the raceway 18 and its support may be removed when desired, this opening being preferably closed by a suitable cap 24. The hopper 10 is provided internally with suitable means for elevating the tacks as the hopper rotates and depositing said tacks upon the raceway 18, said means preferably consisting of a series of suitably shaped buckets 25. Such of the tacks as are deposited in the raceway 18 with their Shanks depending in the space between said plates travel down said raceway, as illustrated in Fig. 1, and are delivered into the groove 17 of the raceway 16, as shown in Fig. 1. Of course, there will be some tacks spilled onto the raceway in such a manner that their Shanks will not enter its groove and hang in proper position to slide down and accordingly such tacks must be removed or brushed off of the raceway into the hopper. For this purpose, I preferably employ a rotating collar 26 secured tothe hopper 1() and rotating therewith, said collar being provided with a projection or preferably a series of projections 27 extending inwardly toward the raceway 16 and in case a series of projections are employed they are preferably closely spaced.

In the present instance, the collar 26 is provided with a recess 28 into which the projections 27 extend. The projections 27, it will be noted, clear the raceway 16 by a sutlicient space. to allow the heads of the tacks to pass therebeyond in their travel down the raceway. The collar, it will be observed, does not bear against the raceway 16, but is separated therefrom by an annular space 29 which allows the tacks to pass therethrough in the manner illustrated in Fig. 1.

The raceway 16 and the sleeve 13 together form a passage for the tacks and preferably the sleeve 13 is provided internally with a groove 30 for the heads of the tacks, see Figs. 1 and 3. This groove allows the tacks to pass entirely through the sleeve 13 and its supporting bracket 14 to that portion of the raceway which extends downwardly beyond said sleeve. Vhen the tacks have reached the lower part of the raceway they are stopped and separated by suitable means preferably consisting of two plates 30 and 31, see Figs. 4 and 6, the plate 30 being provided with an aperture 32 and the plate 31 extending across said aperture, as shown in Fig. 6, and said plates being separated from each other by a space 33 into which the tacks pass through the aperture 32 and are stopped by the plate 31. When these plates are moved toward the right from the position shown in Fig. 6, the first tack which is restrained by the plate 30 passes through the aperture 32 and is held against further movement by the plate 31 until said plates are again moved toward the left, when the plate 31 will release the tack thus held and will allow it to pass down the raceway, while the right hand portion of the plate 30 will stop the next succeeding tack.

The plates 30 and 31 are reciprocated by any suitable means and for this purpose are preferably mounted upon a slide 34 mounted in the bracket 14 and reciprocated by suitable means which will be described hereinafter. The tacks as they are released by the plate 31 pass therebeyond intoy a supplementary raceway 35 constituting a continuation of the raceway 16 and preferably consisting of a pair of levers 36 mounted upon pivots 37 to swing laterally one toward and away from the other, said levers being provided with a countersunk hole 38, see Figs. 1 and 2, which forms a pocket to receive the tacks as they are released one by one by the plate 31. The levers 36 are pressed toward each other at their ends which form the pocket by a pair of suitable springs 39, see Fig. 2.

When a tack has been delivered by the raceway into the pocket 38, the same is driven by suitable driving means preferably consisting of a vertically adjustable anvil 40 and a driver 41. The driver entering the pocket 38 in the well known manner, by striking upon the head of the tacks, spreads the levers 36 apart, thus allowing the driver to pass through and between said levers to drive the tack and clutch it against the anvil 40. The driver 41 is mounted and actuated in any suitable manner, preferably by securing the same to a yoke 42 connecting a pair of driver slides 43 to each other, said slides being mounted `in suitable guides 44 and being connected to each other at their lower extremities by a second yoke 45.

The driver slides may receive their vertical motion by suitable mechanism either of the foot power type or of the belt driven type, or both, and in the drawings I have illustrated a mechanism by means of which the driver slides may be actuated by either foot or belt power at will. For actuating the driver slides by foot power, I provide a treadle rod 46 connected to the yoke 45 and surrounded by a spring 47 which normally holds the driver slides in their raised positions. The driver slides may also be actuated by a lever 48 having a roll 49 bearing upon the yoke 45, said lever being actuated by suitable means such, for example, as a cam 50 secured to a shaft 51 journaled in suitable bearings in the base 15 and driven by a pulley 52. Thus it will be seen that since the roll 49 bears upon the top of the yoke 45, the driver slides are free to be actuated by the treadle rod 46, although at the same time being capable of being driven by the power mechanism just described.

Preferably, power is transmitted from the driver slides 43 to the slide 34 by a lever 53 having an arm 54 engaging the yoke 42 and held thereagainst by a spring 63, see Fig. 4, and an arm 55 connected to the slide 34 in such a manner that the slide 34 is given a complete reciprocation for each complete reciprocation of the driver 41 so that the tacks are allowed to descend one by one into t-he pocket 38 to be driven by the driver. A stop 64 limits the motion of the slide 34 toward the right, Fig. 4.

The hopper 10 may be rotated by any suitable means and for this purpose I may employ a ratchet 56 secured to the hub of said hopper and engaged by a pawl 57 pivotally mounted upon a pawl carrying lever 58 fulcrumed at 59 and connected by a link 60 to the yoke 42, see Fig. 5. The pawl 57 may be provided with cheeks 61 engaging the faces of the ratchet 56 to maintain the same in proper engagement with said ratchet and may be held against said ratchet by a suitable spring 62. Preferably, the link 60 passes through the lever 58, as shown in Fig. 1, and said lever is held in engagement with an adjustable abutment on the link 60 by a spring 61, the arrangement being such that on the downward stroke of the driver slide the spring 61 causes the pawl to traverse its ratchet in an idle movement and upon the next upward movement of the driver slide the pawl interengages with the teeth of the ratchet and imparts a partial rotation to the hopper 10.

Having thus described my invention, What I claim and desire by Letters Patent to securc is:

l. A machine for driving tacks and the like having, in combination, an inclined raceWay, a tubular support through Which said raceway extends and Within which said raceway is supported, a hopper into which said raceway extends, said hopper having a hub surrounding and journaled upon said tubular support to rotate about an inclined axis and being provided With means for elevating the tacks and delivering them toward said racevvay, means forming a pocket into which said tacks are delivered by said raceway, and means for driving said tacks.

2. A machine for driving tacks and the like having, in combination, an inclined race- Way, a tubular support through Which said racevvay extends a hopper into Which said racevvay extends, said hopper having a hub surrounding and j ournaled upon said tubular support and being provided with means for elevating the tacks and delivering them .toward said raceway, means carried by said FRANK HOLBROOK.

Witnesses LOUIS A. JONES, SADIE V. MCCARTHY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for ve cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents Washington, D. C. 

